Animal Acoustics
Our mission is to use and develop new technologies to understand and to conserve the earth's biological diversity through research and education.
Who we are:
Miyako Warrington, M.S.
Miya Warrington's research interests include animal behaviour and evolution of novel traits. In particular, she is interested in animal communication and bioacoustics. She received her B.Sc. in Biology specializing in Ecology and Environmental Sciences at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. She received her M.S. in Tropical Conservation Biology and Enivormental Science from the University of Hawaii at Hilo in May 2008. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at Macquarie University's Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour.
Miya's interest in animal behaviour started at a young age when she was living in rural Canada where she was able to observe waterfowl, herons, eagles and other beautiful wetland bird on a regular basis. Volunteering at the Vancouver Aquarium allowed her to get her first peek into how science was done, and she quickly got involved with vegetation and bird surveys, among various other projects. Her first research project focused on looking at recognition characteristics of the feebee calls in Black-capped chickadees. Miya then proceeded into venturing into a wide array of biology sub-fields included palaentology, toxicology, fisheries and wildlife, but always coming back to the birds. Miya's intrigue for physics led her to consideration of combining the ideas and technologies with biology research. Her first published research using this approach was on flight energetic of the Marbled Murrelet, which included examining flight models. Coqui frog papers are forthcoming. Life's adventures led Miya and her husband, Ben, to Hawaii and then to Australia, where she currently resides.
Current Projects:
An experimental analysis of multi-modal signalling using fowl (Gallus gallus) as a model species
Animal communication is a rapidly growing field that continues to dominate the programs of international conferences and the pages of high-impact journals. This research specialty is a particular strength of the Department of Brain, Behaviour, and Evolution at Macquarie University. New findings are questioning long-held assumptions in a host of related fields including animal culture, learning, sexual selection, and signal meaning; a new synthesis is being forged that links the study of cognition, traditionally the province of experimental psychology, with function and evolution, topics that have long been central in biological science.
As in many other scientific disciplines, the study of animal behaviour has been limited by technology. For example, the availability of sound spectrograms and portable recorders in the 20th century allowed for documentation of songs and analysis of song structure that was previously unsuccessfully attempted by musical transcription (Thorpe 1954). Signaling movements, like those used in territorial or mating displays, have historically been particularly difficult to describe. Even though they are functionally important in a wide range of contexts such as such as mate choice (Rosenthal, Evans & Miller 1996) and opponent assessment (Ord, Blumstein & Evans 2001), they have been the most neglected class of animal signals. Impediments to studying movements have recently been removed by technological advances such as improved image resolution (Ophir & Galef 2003, Smith & Evans 2008), highly realistic computer-generated animations (Wantanabe & Troje 2006, Woo & Rieucau 2008), and new approaches for structural analysis (Peters & Evans 2003).
Recent work has demonstrated that many animal signals are multimodal (Partan & Marler 1999; Partan & Marler 2005) and this area of research has become a hot topic in international peer reviewed journals. Multimodal signals are thought to enhance efficacy and information content (Rowe 1999, Hebets & Papaj 2005; Partan & Marler 2005), and may also serve to increase the likelihood of detection in a noisy environment (Johnstone 1996). Among birds, the most common pairing of sensory modalities is acoustic and visual (Hebets & Papaj 2005). Studies have shown that both the acoustic and visual portions of the tidbitting behaviour are referential (Evans & Evans 1999; Smith & Evans 2008, 2009). This is particularly important because this is the first species of vertebrates, other than humans, in which this has been found.
More Information:Animal Behaviour Lab http://galliform.bhs.mq.edu.au/index.html
Past Projects:
Master's Thesis: Monitoring coqui frog (Eleutherodactylus coqui) populations using sound pressure levels
Miya's thesis focused on developing a new method for monitoring invasive coqui frogs, Eleutherodactylus coqui, on the Big Island, Hawai'i, using sound pressure levels. (more . . .)
Advisor:
William J. Mautz
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~mautz/
Committee:
Patrick J. Hart
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~pjhart/
Cedric C. Muir
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~cmuir/
Produced using Raven 1.3 (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
Cataloguing the Vocalizations of the `Alala
Miya is currently working on digitizing and analyzing vocalizations of the Hawaiian Crow, Corvus hawaiiensis. (more . . .)
Advisor:
Patrick J. Hart
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~pjhart/
Collaborators:
Paul C. Banko
Donna Ball
Future Projects:
Miya has many, many ideas and ambitions to record, digitize and preserve vocalizations of Pacific Island birds. She is also interested in developing automatic recording systems to monitor birds and calling amphibians. Monitoring animals can be daunting task which is often restricted by the lack of funds and people power. Miya hopes by developing automatic recording units to acoustically monitor species, we can increase our ability to monitor ecosystems and species with our current resources.
Selected Publications:
Francis L. Benevides Jr., William J. Mautz,, and Miyako Warrington. 2009. A piece-wise linear model of sound pressure level of male Eleutherodactylus coqui overnight chorus. Herpetological Review 40 (2): 162-165.
Elliott, Kyle; Hewett, Miyako; Kaiser, Gary; and Blake, Robert W. 2004. Flight energetics of the Marbled Murrelet, Brachyramphus marmoratus. Canadian Journal of Zoology 82: 644-652
Hewett, Miyako and Darryl T. McLeod. 2001. Status of the White Pelican on Rainy Lake, Ontario, 2001. Fort Frances District Report Series No. 50. Entered Sep 04 2001. Ontario, Canada.
Contact and More Information
email: miya .at. animal-acoustics .dot. com
Links
Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour at Macquarie University
University of Hawai'i at Hilo TCBES program